Love Your Idle Time
The minute I started reading Chapter 5 of my book club's selection of A Book That Loves You: An Adventure in Self-Compassion, I started thinking about cats. I’m not sure there is another creature that enjoys their idle time as much as a cat does. And sure enough, this chapter was filled with images of cats. Obviously, the authors agree!
Favorite Bits:
“How to Recognize a Crowded Brain -
If you’re feeling low-energy, aren’t getting anything done, aren’t achieving your goals, have no more creative ideas, are repeating mistakes, and feeling easily overwhelmed; These are all signs of a crowded brain. Take them seriously and make timely adjustments before you can no longer do anything at all, warns psychiatrist and brain researcher Srini Pillay, author of Tinker Dabble Doodle Try. Pillay calls defocusing ‘an intelligent form of letting go.’”
page 138
I’m going to adopt the idea of “defocusing” in my own life. I am always so worried about focusing that I haven’t thought about appreciating the act of defocusing!
If you are like me, you wonder if you even have time to be idle. Getting swallowed up in appointments, work, tasks, and the never-ending to-do list is easy. Making time to relax is difficult. I like this bit of advice:
“If your life offers little room for breaks, start at the edges of the day: ten minutes before you get up or fifteen minutes before you go to sleep.”
page 140
It’s time to foster a better relationship with our time. I have a really tough time just doing “nothing” so I’m going to check out one of this chapter’s suggestions for further reading and read The Joy of Doing Nothing by Rachel Jonat. I have a Kindle Unlimited membership, so it’s a free read for me. It’s considered a Great on Kindle read and also available in hardcover.
Want to join in the fun?
Purchase A Book That Loves You: An Adventure in Self Compassion. This is not a book you can borrow from the library because you tear out some pages to make creative and inspirational projects. It doesn’t work on Kindle either for that same reason.
Join the online book club and/or follow along here on the blog. You can even subscribe to receive blog posts via email.
Take your time with this book. I’m going to work on this book during March and April. No rush here! I’ll be posting about my activities and learning from each chapter.
Do something (or many things) that you learned from the book. The best way to learn is by doing!
Share the ideas you learn about with others. Tell your family about what you are reading, post in the book club, or post some thoughts
If you have any thoughts you would like to share about the book, feel free to post in the online book club. Or you may enjoy sharing a review on Amazon or Goodreads.
Enjoy the journey!
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